How Darius got his groove back

October 01, 2006|JASON KELLY

SOUTH BEND -- Darius Walker's biggest gain of the game came on a dead ball. After Brady Quinn dumped a pass into his hands, Walker advanced it a healthy 13 yards before the whistle, nudging Notre Dame across midfield on its second offensive play. Then Purdue linebacker George Hall tacked on 15 yards with a personal foul. Nothing Walker did all day -- and he did a lot to produce 219 total yards -- accounted for as much on a single play as that penalty. Say that again: One late hit went for more than any of his 31 carries and nine receptions, a statistical quirk that captures Walker's grinding style as a running back. Walker accumulates yardage the unspectacular way. He churns it. Notre Dame used his rugged reliability Saturday to synchronize its offensive rhythm, establishing a pounding cadence in a 35-21 win over Purdue. Five carries and a reception on the first six plays identified Walker as the drummer responsible for providing the Irish offense with a sustainable beat. They lacked that for most of the first four games, especially the last two when lopsided scores forced Notre Dame into a one-dimensional comeback mode. Those games started slipping away in part because the Irish couldn't find their ground groove. This week they were that much more determined to take their preferred form of transportation. Courtesy of a more porous opposing defense and the resolute determination embodied in Walker's performance, it worked. "I just made a commitment along with our staff and our players that we were going to make the running game go," Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said, "no matter what happened." That commitment never wavered because of the way Walker ran. Behind an offensive line pushing Purdue around, he burrowed through the hole of his choice on play after thudding play. "I kind of get at liberty to do what I want to do out there, and just kind of run what I see," Walker said, "which is good because I don't have to think too much out there. It's just more reacting." With each carry, Walker appeared to pick up the pace, if not with game-breaking wheels, at least with the kind of quick thinking that built momentum out of molehills. By the time he tiptoed 14 yards for a touchdown late in the first quarter with barely a Purdue fingerprint providing resistance, his form of persistent forward progress had become Notre Dame's defining trait. Every touch felt like another gust of wind at his back. "It's nice to get a chance to touch the ball a lot and to get in a groove out there and build a little confidence," Walker said. "Trust me, I want it that much if I can get it." After all that effort, he looked fresh, as if Purdue's defense didn't batter him half as much as the snapping bars on the dreaded practice apparatus known as the gauntlet. He and running backs coach Mike Haywood had a heated exchange last week over Walker's resistance to take his turn chugging through the gauntlet because of lingering soreness from the day before. Their dialogue, unfit for print in all its profane glory, ended with Haywood instructing "Nutra Sweet" to do as he was told. No hard feelings, of course. "Me and coach Haywood are very close and very cool," Walker said Saturday, swearing by the inspirational intensity of the practice field. It translated so well to the game this week that Weis wouldn't mind if a difference of opinion flared up again in the next few days. "I encouraged them to have an altercation on Tuesday," he said. Until then, they could only smile about Saturday's performance, a breakthrough of sorts even if Purdue arrived with its cracks already showing. Notre Dame offered no apologies for that. Neither did Walker for anything he might have said while staring down the barrel of the gauntlet. Rushing for 146 yards means never having to say you're sorry. If anything, rushing for 146 yards probably means finding something else to fight about next week. Considering how Notre Dame's offense ran the ball pre-spat, Walker might be better off on Haywood's bad side. "We kind of joked about that a little bit after the game," Walker said. "Whatever works, right?" Weis calls plays on that same flexible basis -- whatever works -- but Saturday he made sure Walker would do most of it in his old reliable way, extending time of possession rather than dazzling with stopwatch speed. Nobody better to do the heavy lifting necessary to carry Notre Dame to a win 4.7 yards at a time.